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Is Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF (RSPH) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Health Care ETFs category of the market, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF (RSPH - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 11/01/2006.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.

A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns.

However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.

Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by Invesco. RSPH has been able to amass assets over $893.64 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Health Care ETFs. RSPH seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 EQUAL WEIGHT HEALTH CARE INDEX before fees and expenses.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care Index equally weights stocks in the health care sector of the S&P 500 Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.

Annual operating expenses for RSPH are 0.40%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.65%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For RSPH, it has heaviest allocation in the Healthcare sector --about 100% of the portfolio.

Taking into account individual holdings, Incyte Corp (INCY - Free Report) accounts for about 2.01% of the fund's total assets, followed by Waters Corp (WAT - Free Report) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY - Free Report) .

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 18.15% of RSPH's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added roughly 4.77% and was up about 11.79% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 12/05/2024), respectively. RSPH has traded between $27.81 and $32.53 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.84 and standard deviation of 16.19% for the trailing three-year period. With about 63 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Health Care 25/50 Index and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV - Free Report) tracks Health Care Select Sector Index. Vanguard Health Care ETF has $17.78 billion in assets, Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF has $39.33 billion. VHT has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLV charges 0.09%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Health Care ETFs.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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